xkcd

The Food Forum's Evil Twin. Trying to lose weight or get in shape? Tips, encouragement, status reports, and so forth go here.Disclaimer: Unless otherwise stated, we are not health professionals. Take advice with salt.

Going to restart this for 2017, like dimochka did with the pull-ups thread. I have exactly 21 weeks to get back in shape, before taking off on a fairly aggressive summer backpacking tour.

I did three months off this past summer, and had a wonderful time, but spent half of the summer just hiking myself into shape in the first place. I'm going to do another 3 months in 2017, but this time around I want to be able to hit the ground running (man was that literal), and push beyond anything I've ever done.

I let myself fall apart a bit here after I got back to the city. But I don't think I'm all the way back to square one. Shouldn't be starting from as far back as I was last year.

So, 3.2 miles, 800 ft of vert (800 gain, 800 loss). ~36 minutes.

Hardly blistering pace, pretty lame compared to where I was. But I guess that's a 9.5% grade, and it didn't feel abjectly terrible. Never broke down and had to walk. So, it's a start.

0 + 3.2 = 3.2

Might as well track vert too, since that's arguably more important for me. I'll count in thousands of feet.

0 + 0.8 = 0.8k

Edit: Maybe I need to think about a different thread for this sort of thing. Vert has never been a part of this. I'll think on it.

I've got a pretty sharp pain between my heel and ankle though, when I walk or run. I'm figuring I've been getting into it again too hard after being out for a few years. I've also been given new shoes recently -- could that be the culprit? Any advice, anyone?

I'll bet! That 5:00 in the middle especially's a real increase over what you were doing before, nice one! Good luck if you do opt for distance instead of speed next time

Well, the first and third split are the downhill parts. So, it's not as good as it looks.

Anyway, still addicted to the elliptical. Just too convenient, especially when the only times I have available to workout are the middle of the night, and it hasn't stopped raining in two months. So, I'll just do my own personal tracker of that for the time being.

First goal: 1000 kcal (megacal?) in an hour.Before summer: 2000 kcal in two hours.

I'm quite proud of this thread as OP, so it's great to see it necro'd!

Not been running as much over the last couple of years because work was intense - pretty much fell to 3-4 miles once at a weekend. Now been sent to Amman, Jordan for 6 months, which is great for experience but awful for being 3600 miles from my wife and daughters. I go home for 2 weeks every 2 months. However, I'm in a serviced flat at the moment with access to a gym. This is not a city in which a lot of people pound the pavements because we are at more than 3300 feet, it's way too hot in the summer and the pavements will break your legs if you don't take care. So, as I need to take my mind of missing my family I'm going to make use of the gym whilst I have access.

Turns out the trick to running on a running machine when you are at an altitude of 3500 feet (so the air is a bit thin) is to actually read the instructions and set a sensible pace. Apparently just jumping on, picking the hill-running programme and pushing start can lead to you feeling like you are going to die after 15 minutes. So, I'll keep experimenting, but in the week I've been here:

04 APR: 41.1 + 3.1 = 44.2- Eight weeks left before I head out on my trip, and my strength/cardio balance is all wrong right now. I'm in a mini addicted-to-lifting phase at the moment. Have to have to switch gears; the weeks are slipping away. (I guess doing something is better than doing nothing, but I'm going to lose all this strength on the trail anyway...)

07APR: 44.2 + 3.1 = 47.3- Instead of just running up and down my hill over and over, I've started doing a different, meandering course, with one down-and-up of the hill right at the midpoint. Definitely a lot less boring.

24APR: 47.3 + 3.1 = 50.4- No, I didn't go 17 days between cardio, I swear. Just still defaulting to elliptical most of the time...

02MAY: 50.4 + 3.1 = 53.5- Took a good chunk of time off on that one; first good "groove" run of the season. Will do a couple hours on the bike this evening. Time's ticking.

11MAY: 53.3 + 3.1 = 56.6

24MAY: 56.6 + 3.1 = 59.7PB by 37 seconds for this course, despite the 13 day gap. Still logging tons of elliptical hours in between.